Anyone who’s seen China’s state-run TV channel will think of it as a serious and conservative channel. It seems, however, that the editors working at CCTV are quite good at humor.

In a news report broadcast on CCTV about an air force training exercise, there was a brief shot of an exploding aircraft. The shot is cut into the video to seem as if it is part of the footage shot for the segment, with the explosion being the result of a live fire exercise. It seems this clip is actually from the final battle scene in the 1986 film Top Gun.

The funny thing is that the shot of the exploding aircraft was totally unnecessary in the context of the report. Whether you call this propaganda or not, you gotta admit these guys know how to make boring news action-packed.

Click on this link to view the side by side video comparison by the Wall Street Journal.